Solutions to real-world problems

Launched in 2019, "V&A Innovate" is a major creative design competition aimed at all English pupils between the ages of 11 and 14.

"The ideas these young people have created as part of the "V&A Innovate" program are so relevant that it was very moving to hear them." So said Ade Adepitan MBE, TV host and Paralympic medalist, at the end of the jury for the latest edition of "V&AInnovate", the school challenge dedicated to promoting design professions and creativity. Created in 2019, it enables students aged 11 to 14 to take part in an annual design competition. The process is simple: a teacher, who has access to an extensive online resource center (animations, lesson plans, etc.), registers one or more teams of 4 to 6 young people. He or she will supervise them for a minimum of 6 hours. Each team has to come up with a creative response to the V&A's theme for the year, linked to its collections or exhibitions. The aim is to enable young people to develop their design skills by responding to a specific problem. Following a pre-selection process, a one-day event is organized in London to enable the 10 best projects to be defended before a jury of experts. Several prizes are awarded, and the winning team can then take part in a bespoke designer-led workshop linked to their idea, either at the V&A or at the school. The aim now is to reach more students, well beyond London and the south of England.

Contact: Chloe Johnson, Head of Grants - cam.johnson@vam.ac.uk

Budget: €114960

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The museum

The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) is the world's largest museum of applied and decorative arts, design and sculpture, housing a permanent collection of over 2.3 million objects spanning 5,000 years of art and human ingenuity. The museum brings its collections to life through innovative scenography in the permanent galleries, breathtaking exhibitions, world-class research and inclusive discovery activities. 

The museum was founded to inspire the designers and craftsmen of the future. Its founder, Henry Cole, described the museum as "a school classroom for everyone". This idea has never disappeared, and is still one of the museum's main aspirations today.

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"We're really delighted to receive this Art Explora award - Académie des beaux-arts for the V&A Innovate project, a national competition for young people whose theme is inspired by our collection, which covers over 5,000 years of creative disciplines. This award comes at a time when creative education has never been more vital for young people. It enables them to develop the skills to better face and solve problems, collaborate and develop critical thinking. This award is a tremendous encouragement and testament to the tireless work of both educators and young people in this complex pandemic context, in which museums also play a fundamental role as places of emancipation and inspiration for the next generation of creators and thinkers. The award will enable us to develop V&A Innovate and strengthen our support for young people so that they can look to the future with optimism through the prism of design. We are extremely grateful to Art Explora for recognizing the value of our program."

Dr Tristram Hunt, Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum

A sensory kit to stimulate memory

"Les Sens de la Mémoire" offers elderly people suffering from Alzheimer's disease and neurodegenerative illnesses a sensory kit to stimulate distant and immediate memory.

There is an urgent need to address the problem of isolation of dependent elderly people, particularly those suffering from neurodegenerative disorders. In France, over a million people are currently affected, and this figure will double in 20 years' time. Studies show that contact with works of art has a real impact on the physical and mental health of the population...This is why the Monnaie de Paris has multiplied its initiatives, even winning the "Tourism and Disability" label in 2020. Convinced that currency is a powerful vector of individual and collective memory, it has created specific itineraries within the museum and now wants to go beyond its walls to meet isolated patients by offering them a "multisensory and digital" kit. In concrete terms, the kit, which will be offered to patients and their carers, will include objects to handle, smell and listen to, a memory game, digital tablets with integrated applications, coloring books or comic strips recalling the history of a currency, and an art workshop. The idea is to stimulate memory, the senses, fine motor skills and reflection, as well as to reinforce or create social interaction and restore the self-esteem and dignity of patients. The museum hopes to develop these kits and adapt them to other audiences, notably hospitalized sick children, young people with autism spectrum disorders, ULIS classes; and why not, in time, evolve them towards a wider vulnerable public. The ambitious goal is to reach 30,000 people a year, with each kit benefiting around 700.

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Contact: Stéphanie Molinard, Head of Programs and Cultural Action - stephanie.molinard@monnaiedeparis.fr

Budget: €122,500

Partnership: Association France Alzheimer/Groupe SOS/The Fondation des Artistes retreat house

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Contact: Stéphanie Molinard - Head of Programs and Cultural Action - stephanie.molinard@monnaiedeparis.fr

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The museum

The Musée de la Monnaie de Paris, located next to the Monnaie de Paris factory, is dedicated to the arts of metal. A unique venue for multi-sensory experiences, it showcases expertise by placing the men and women at work in the workshops at the heart of the museum's itinerary. Designed with universal design in mind, so that it's accessible to all, the tour invites you to take part in the experience, to understand what goes on behind the scenes of this temple to coinage and arts and crafts, before plunging into a marvellous universe of expressions, myths and treasures - that of coinage. 

"Winning the European Art Explora Prize - Académie des beaux-arts is the crowning achievement of La Monnaie de Paris' efforts to promote accessibility, particularly for the
public suffering from Alzheimer's disease and related disorders. This is a great honor for us, and enables us to reinforce our vocation of transmission and openness to the greatest
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With "Les sens de la mémoire", La Monnaie de Paris wanted to develop a multi-sensory and digital itinerant kit project to meet the needs of dependent elderly people. Through coins, a memorial object, a vector of exchange and a generator of social ties, we offer a range of activities designed to stimulate memory through cognitive, artistic and sensory mediation.

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Marc SCHWARTZ,
Chairman and CEO of La Monnaie de Paris

The home loan challenge

"Musée comme chez soi" (Museum as home) involves organizing home loans of works of art in the vicinity of the museum, in neighborhoods with a strong social mix.

"For me, museums should never be safes," says Claire Leblanc, Director of the Musée d'Ixelles. Taking advantage of its closure for renovation until 2024, the Musée d'Ixelles has taken up the challenge of breaking down walls, by offering a few local residents the chance to host a work of art in their home for a weekend. At the same time, they agreed to let visitors - family, friends and neighbors, as well as curious passers-by and museum regulars - discover the work. The sociology of the neighborhood offers an opportunity to reach an audience unfamiliar with cultural institutions. An operation of this kind calls for a solid canvassing effort upstream: posters, meetings with associations, participation in festivities, etc. Then the creation of a host-mediator tandem, to take care of all the details, from the safe reception of the work to the mediation. "The important thing is simply to enable people to talk about the work in their own words, with their own story," explains one mediator. The first edition was a resounding success, not least for its conviviality. The initiative, which has already been renewed, will ultimately create a large community of ambassadors who will be involved in the discussions surrounding the museum's reopening.

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Contact: Stéphanie Masuy, Head of Audience Services - stephanie.masuy@ixelles.brussels

Budget: €123,080

Partnership: Patrimoine à roulettes

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The museum

Founded in 1892, the Musée d'Ixelles occupies a prime position on the Belgian cultural scene. Its permanent collections, comprising 12,000 works, offer a broad panorama of Belgian art from the 19th century to the present day, and include a number of "happy accidents" such as works by Miró, Picasso and the complete collection of original posters by Toulouse-Lautrec. Currently undergoing renovation and expansion, the Musée d'Ixelles is deploying a transitional project of dynamic intra- and extra-muros closure under the label "Museum in Progress", until the reopening in 2024.

Musée comme chez soi" is a participatory project that creates links. It is also a great lesson in humility for the museum teams: the status of the work and its appropriation are totally revisited. After six editions, winning the Art Explora prize is a wonderful opportunity to develop this extraordinary adventure in another neighboring district that is clearly less familiar with the museum."

Claire LEBLANC, Director, Musée d'Ixelles

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The National Gallery

"National Gallery: Jan van Huysum Visits..." Exhibiting a National Gallery masterpiece outside the museum, in direct contact with the public.
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The project

National Gallery: Jan Van Huysum Visits is the sequel to the highly successful Artemisia Visits project, conducted in 2019. For Artemisia Visits, Artemisia Gentileschi's self-portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria (c. 1615-1617) was presented in five non-museum venues across the UK: a doctor's surgery, a girls' school, a women's prison and two libraries. Never before has a 17th-century painting from a national collection been exhibited in this way, making it a unique project. In 2021, the National Gallery plans to tour Flowers in a Terracotta Vase (1736-1737) by Jan van Huysum. This eighteenth-century painting will appear in six new unusual locations around the UK, with the aim of promoting wellbeing, particularly among audiences who have been most affected by COVID 19. The National Gallery will be working with a range of cultural and social partners on this project.

The National Gallery

Founded by Parliament in 1824, the National Gallery houses one of the world's largest collections of paintings, taking visitors on a journey through the art of Western Europe over seven centuries, from the 13th to the 20th century (Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Velàzquez, Titian, Rembrandt, Turner, Monet, Van Gogh...). The museum's main objectives are to enrich the collection, preserve it and make it accessible to all visitors.

Contact

Tracy Jones - Head of press, public relations and public affairs - tracy.jones@ng-london.org.uk

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza

"#VersionaThyssen": call on 16-35 year olds to reinterpret the museum's works in their own way and post this reinterpretation on social networks with the #VersionaThyssen
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The project

The project has already gone through 7 editions, and an 8th is currently underway. For each edition, the museum invites young people to freely reinterpret one or more works from its collections, and to post the results on social networks using the hashtag #VersionaThyssen. A jury of professional artists selects the winners. The creations are showcased during festive evenings at the museum or during digital ceremonies with COVID-19. More than 5,000 reinterpretations have already been submitted.

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza

The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid's Palacio de Villahermosa is home to the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection, owned by the Spanish state and comprising almost nine hundred works of art ranging from the 13th to the 20th century.

Contact

Pepa Octavio de Toledo - Sponsorship Manager- portaviodetoledo@museothyssen.org

MUCEM

"Destination MUCEM": Every Sunday, a free bus service to encourage access to the MUCEM from outlying districts.
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The project

Destination Mucem is a unique mobility scheme for out-of-town visitors: every Sunday, a free bus is organized from outlying districts, enabling new visitors to create a special link with the museum. Personalized, fun mediation is offered during the journey and prepares visitors for their visit, in a friendly atmosphere. On arrival at the museum, visitors receive a free ticket. The bus will serve 4 different routes, and its passage will be prepared by a large-scale communication campaign with local players.

MUCEM

The Musée des Civilisations de l'Europe et de la Méditerranée (MUCEM) is conceived as a cultural city in the heart of Marseille. It represents the social, scientific and political cultural ferment of the Mediterranean world, and offers major artistic, historical and thematic exhibitions, as well as numerous events for the general public.

Contact: Béatrice Goudard - Events Manager - beatrice.goudard@mucem.org

Altofest - International Contemporary Live Art

Bringing art into the homes of Neapolitans by transforming houses into artistic residences and performance spaces.

Contemporary poetry sound fund

Discover contemporary poetry in a sound bubble accessible to the general public and the visually impaired and blind.

Open Camp - A new story for children in refugee camps

Empowering refugee children to tell their stories through animation and storytelling.